After considering sites in downtown Salt Lake City, Vineyard, and Provo, a soccer-specific stadium for Real Salt Lake was approved for the city of Sandy, a suburb of Salt Lake City, in late 2005; however, funding for the stadium was hard to come by. A vote in January 2006 struck down a funding proposal for the stadium, and the project was declared "dead" by owner Dave Checketts on the 29th of that month, putting the team's future in doubt. Parties from cities such as Rochester, New York, and St Louis, Missouri expressed interest in purchasing the franchise and moving it, and Checketts announced that the team would likely be sold and moved out of the Salt Lake area by the end of the 2007 season.

In response to the rejection of the stadium plan, local construction company Anderson Geneva offered the club 30 acres of land on which to build the stadium just east of Interstate 15 in Sandy for free, at an estimated loss on the price of the land at US $10 Million. The move prompted the club to make a new proposal to the Utah State Senate on February 2, 2006, in which 15 percent of the hotel taxes collected in Salt Lake County between July 2007 and 2017, equaling about US $2 Million a year, would be diverted to the project. The bill was passed by the Senate, allowing for the club to announce the commencement of building what was then known as "RSL Stadium".

The groundbreaking of the stadium took place on August 12, 2006 featuring elected leaders of the state of Utah, as well as team officials and the rosters of both Real Salt Lake and Spanish club Real Madrid, who were due to play each other in a Xango Cup match a few days after the fact.

On September 28, 2008, it was announced that the naming rights to the stadium were sold to international mining company Rio Tinto, owners of local mining operation Kennecott Utah Copper. A fifteen-year deal was set into place, worth between $1.5 million and $2 million per year.[7]

The stadium finally opened on October 9, 2008, in a Major League Soccer match between Real Salt Lake and the New York Red Bulls.

Because the stadium was under construction throughout 2008 and did not open until late in the year, most of Real Salt Lake's 2008 season was spent in their original home at Rice-Eccles Stadium, on the grounds of the University of Utah in downtown Salt Lake City. The first match (and first event overall) held within the stadium was a Major League Soccer match between RSL and the New York Red Bulls on October 9, 2008, which ended in a 1-1 draw between the two in front of a then-sellout crowd of 20,008 people. A few weeks later, the stadium also played host to the first playoff game in RSL history against Chivas USA, in which the home side ended up winning 1-0 in front of another sellout crowd.

On July 29, 2009, the stadium played host to the 2009 Major League Soccer All-Star Game between a team of MLS All-Stars and Premier League side Everton. The game initially ended as a 1-1 tie, leading to a penalty shootout in which the English side emerged as champions. It was the first time that a foreign team had defeated the All-Stars since the creation of the game, and remains the only All-Star game to progress to penalties as of 2013.

Throughout 2010 and 2011, the stadium became one of the toughest venues to play at in Major League Soccer, with Real Salt Lake having and undefeated streak of 34 games at home. At the time, it was the longest undefeated streak achieved by any team in MLS history; the record has since been broken by the Houston Dynamo, who won their 35th home game on April 14, 2013.

On April 27, 2011, the stadium played host to the second leg of the 2011 CONCACAF Champions League Finals between RSL and Liga MX club CF Monterrey, for the chance to represent the continent at the 2011 FIFA Club World Cup. The Mexican side ended up winning the game 1-0, and thanks to a 2-2 draw back in Mexico during the first leg, Monterrey were declared the champions on aggregate score. The game remains the farthest point achieved by an American side in any FIFA-sponsored competition.

The stadium was used as a host stadium during the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup, and hosted two back-to-back games for Group C on July 13, 2013.[10] In the first game, the United States defeated Cuba by a score of 4-1, while in the second, Costa Rica pulled out a 1-0 win against Belize; both games took place in front of a crowd of 17,597 spectators.[11]

The United States women's national soccer team has also played three matches against international opponents at the stadium. The first game was played on March 31, 2010, as a friendly match against Mexico; in the first winter game ever played by the US team, the home side ended up winning the match 1-0, thanks to a second half goal by Abby Wambach.[12] The second game took place as another friendly match on June 30, 2012 against Canada; once again, the home side ended up winning the game, 2-1, in front of 16,800 spectators.[13] The third game was a friendly match on September 13, 2014 against Mexico; the home side ended up winning 8-0. [14]

Since 2011, the stadium has played host to the XFINITY High School Football Challenge, a series of games that pits local teams Alta and Jordan against opponents from across the country. For the 2013 edition, the Alta Hawks will take on the Bergen Catholic Crusaders of New Jersey, while the Jordan Beetdiggers will face the Allentown Redbirds, also of New Jersey.

The stadium has also hosted the Zion's Bank Top of the Mountains Bowl, a bowl game of the NJCAA, since 2008.

Rio Tinto Stadium has been used on several occasions for rugby matches. The first rugby match in the stadium took place between college sides BYU and Utah in March 2010, and was also used as the site of the 2011 USA Rugby Championship, in which UC-Berkeley defeated Brigham Young 21-14. In May 2014, the Varsity Cup Collegiate Rugby National Championship final match saw Brigham Young defeat UC-Berkeley 43-33 in front of 10,172 fans.[15]

On September 20, 2008, it was announced that the naming rights to the stadium would be awarded to international mining company Rio Tinto, the owners of the local Kennecott Utah Copper mining company and its Bingham Canyon Mine on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley. A fifteen-year naming deal was signed, valued at around 1.5 to 2 million US dollars a year.